Life has changed for me in so many ways when making this decision. As a single mother I thought I would never have made it this far. Being the only daughter of my mother my two brothers graduated from college with honour and has good jobs. I had a young baby and did not complete my high school education. I see my friends getting good jobs and pursuing their education and I was a sixteen year old mother with nothing to look forward to.
He couldn’t hold a job down for more than a month. It got to the point where we were living together with other people. I finally left him and packed up all of the kids stuff. Fast forwarding to two thousand I had my own place, was working two jobs, going to school full time, and yes, being a single mom with three little kids ages: 3, 4, 6. Their father hardly ever came around.
So I got married at 17 and started just playing the house wife and mom, till it came to me having to find a job. I went everywhere trying to find a job, and it seemed like all the jobs I could get were jobs at McDonalds and burger king. I knew deep down then that I had to come up with something to give my children a better life. It took me about 5 years after my second son was born to actually get my GED. I would go try to take the test and never finish because I felt I couldn’t do it.
He is the primary breadwinner for the family. The mother LK is retired from her previous job due to disability, but works part time for the public school system preparing food for the lunch programs at various schools. She also helps at the automotive shop doing customer service work when needed. The children are all about 4 years apart and have only loose bonds due to the age differences. The oldest son TS no longer lives at home and works construction and is not married.
She does not attend a daycare. Dylan and his sister live with their biological parents, who are in their low 20’s, in income-based housing. Their father has not worked since the beginning of the year and their mother recently got a part time job working overnights, so they are able to watch the kids on their own. The Child and Family Services Department of Health and Human Services became
My mother read to me every night until I fell asleep. I can remember having dreams about the fairytales she read to me. My father let me pick a book out of the Scholastic paper I use to get every month at school. It didn’t matter how much the book cost he never said no. Welty said, “Neither of my parents had come from homes that could afford to buy many books, but though it must have been something of a strain on his salary, as the youngest officer in a young insurance company, my father was all the while carefully selecting and ordering away for what he and Mother though we children should grow up with.”(Welty, 391) I remember my father giving me his old Hardy Boys books when I was about eight years old.
My most important life lesson is "Do not procrastinate". Till a few months ago, I was a huge procrastinator. I'd find 100s of reasons to not do something no matter how important doing that was. My grades suffered, my self-esteem suffured and my relationships suffered because of it. Any problem in my life, I knew what I had to do to solve it.
According to Lolo, she grew up in Iowa and had very little money or material possessions. Her father was in and out of jail; her mother raised Lolo along with her four siblings as a single parent. Eventually Lolo was discovered in high school and worked herself to a full-ride scholarship at LSU where she won a national championship in the 60-meter hurdles. (Jones). One of her first career obstacles came in 2004, Lolo failed to qualify for the Summer Olympics.
As I became the proper age to apply for jobs, my parents gave me extremely well advice to not work for family or friends. This advice has stayed with me throughout the years. After working at my current job, I can now understand why. My first job I had was at a retail store which was about half an hour from where I lived. I would have to leave about an hour before my shift started just in case there was any traffic.
Little things like going grocery shopping on my own, doing my own laundry, and navigating around the city of Charlotte were big steps for me because I had never done them on my own before. I grew up in the same school for thirteen years and graduated with many people I had known for the entirety of those years. Coming to UNC Charlotte, I had to make all new friends which was difficult for me since I am naturally shy and I normally take a while to open up to people I have just met. Although I still called my parents every night at 8:00 PM, I slowly grew to an independent young adult who was able to function on her own and make her own decisions. My freshmen year of college saw my personality shift and independence grow.